Heirloom Shake from Purée Artisan Juice Bar and pizza from Mellow Mushroom

Heirloom Shake from Purée Artisan Juice Bar

Last weekend I made it to the recently opened DC location of Bethesda's Purée Artisan Juice Bar. Located inside MINT Health Club, at 1724 California Street NW, Purée Juice Bar occupies a sunny side corner of the gym entrance. You don't have to be a member to wander in for a 100% cold pressed, organic juice or a raw vegan nosh.

But I was interested in their smoothie offerings, which they call "Shakes." (They also call their friendly baristas, "Puristas.") I ordered the Heirloom Shake. The artfully-designed drink menu listed this particular shake at $9.75 and said it was good for glow and fiber. It certainly was a glowing orange color. What a beautiful drink! It contained carrot juice, ginger, coconut, and banana. Ginger was the dominant flavor and I swear it made my whole body hum.

Purée offers a host of cleanse packages. And, strangely, they promote bee pollen. (Which I had to google, the worried vegan that I am. Seems like an animal byproduct with allergen potential. So I won't be doing a shot of that. Must be a fitness thing.)

They have a to-go case and a shelf with cool vegan items, like Ape Man Food's Walnut Meat Tacos, Totally Rawganic desserts, and Gnosis chocolates. Also some dry brushes, vegan nail polishes and removers, and something called Cocoa Vegan Booty. (Must investigate.)

Mellow Mushroom pizza

Afterwards, my boyfriend and I hit the rooftop bar of Mellow Mushroom Adams Morgan, located at 2436 18th Street NW. A Southern chain, Mellow Mushroom is often a veg-friendly oasis when we travel in the South. 

Mellow Mushroom has many vegan options with nutritional info on their website. I especially love their build-your-own salads. Plus, the servers know what's up. When you order a pie with Daiya cheese, they offer not to brush the crust with butter or cover the pie with Parmesan.

Mega Veggie Specialty Pie

This nicely charred Mega Veggie pie (above) had red sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, green peppers, mushrooms, onions, black olives, Roma tomatoes, broccoli, banana peppers, artichoke hearts and crumbled tofu. And, boy, did it have Daiya. We ordered the small, 10" size but could only eat a few slices; it was that loaded. The pizza made excellent leftovers.

Mellow Mushroom also has a great beer list, with many local options. And three floors of seating. If you want to score the rooftop tables be prepared to hover. The only downside is the music. Sometimes it's awesome, often it's not. This time it was blaring 90's slacker rock. Quite a counterpoint to Purée's chill health club vibe.    

Mellow Mushroom, exterior night

A seasonal smoothie at Juice Joint Café

For VeganMoFo 2013, my focus is smoothies. September is still too hot for cooking in the District of Columbia. So I'll be embarking on no-cook, blending adventures instead, experimenting both at home and about town. 

Above is a rose-colored smoothie from DC's Juice Joint Café, located at 1025 Vermont Ave NW. Juice Joint Café is a downtown, weekday lunch and breakfast spot which specializes in, you guessed it, excellent fresh juices. Juice Joint also offers some delicious juice-based smoothies. Their website touts the fact that the smoothies are made with 100% juice and whole fruit. So there are no added sweeteners or artificial crap. 

This special seasonal smoothie was a blend of watermelon, strawberry, banana, and apple juice. I ordered the smallest size, a 16-ounce cup for $5.60. This filled-to-the-brim smoothie was so thick and nourishing that it could have been a meal in itself. It was cold, sweet, and refreshing.

Juice Joint also makes some fine vegan food items, which are hard to resist. So I ordered the daily lunch special, a stir-fry wrap, as well. This piping hot wrap was incredibly messy. There were loads of veggies, tofu, and brown rice inside the thick, rather gummy spinach tortilla exterior. The stir-fry flavors were clean--a hippie-inspired mix of Braggs, garlic, and ginger.

If you find yourself in DC, thirsty for a smoothie or hungry for a healthy, colorful lunch, do check out Juice Joint Café. Note to tourists: it's not far from the White House and has outdoor seating. The café's FAQ page also promises that they'll be open on Saturdays soon!

Sweetgreen's new 14th & W location

Sweetgreen, a rapidly expanding Georgetown-born salad chain, recently opened their seventeenth location at 14th and W ST NW. (The actual address is 1315 W Street NW.) Unlike many of the other popular salad shops (like Chop't), Sweetgreen touts sustainability, offering up local and organic ingredients.

In this shiny, sterile warehouse-inspired space, you'll find a giant chalkboard that proudly lists their local produce purveyors. The large yet spare menu is also posted, with "V" for vegan options, under exposed CFL bulbs. (An even more detailed ingredient and nutrition run-down is available from Sweetgreen's online menu.) Below the menu is a well-staffed counter, where you place and follow your order assembly-line style.

The chic p

My boyfriend and I ate here on a rainy Saturday afternoon. We were interested in trying their wraps, but wraps didn't seem to be an option. Instead we had two salads with gratis sides of bread. My boyfriend got the Chic P, a mix of mesclun and spinach with crumbled falafel, whole chickpeas, cukes, peppers, and pita chips. It came with a lemon hummus tahini dressing.

You do get to specify your salad dressing amount at the tossing station. (Or ask for it on the side.) My boyfriend went with medium but thought that selection netted a rather skimpily dressed salad. In fact, he declared the entire salad bowl to be a light snack by his definition.

The spicy sabzi

I ordered the Spicy Sabzi, which had a kale and spinach base. It came with some quinoa, broccoli, carrots, raw beet cubes, sprouts, and tofu cubes. I went with light dressing, a ho-hum carrot chili vinaigrette. But I asked for heavy Sriacha sauce, which helped add some flavor.

It is hard when eating salads out at restaurants, not to compare them with your favorite healthy, large, and affordable homemade salads. I think if you were a salad newbie, these Sweetgreen salads would please. You may want to b.y.o.f., "bring your own fork," as the compostable flatware makes it difficult to spear some ingredients, like raw beets.

   

My boyfriend and I also split a Sweetpress juice, called Purity. This green juice blend has apple, kale, spinach, cucumber, lemon, and ginger. It was very light and fresh. Juice is something I still don't make at home, so this was a treat.  

Beetbox Juice and Butternut Bisque

Beetbox juice

Here are two healing liquids from my winter sickness recovery. Inspired by Kris Carr, I drank a healthy, raw juice this weekend. Juice bars are few and far between in DC but one has recently opened downtown, steps from the National Mall. Protein Bar, a Chicago-based fast-food health chain, has a handy Penn Quarter location at 398 7th Street NW.

Their beetbox juice (above) is a blend of apple, cucumber, beet, carrot, and ginger. This drink was a light and attractive mix, not too earthy or challenging. Protein Bar seems serious about their juice. They have a sign posted at the counter that warns customers to expect a wait of up to fifteen minutes due to the dual-disc juicer process. And they give you a buzzer for your juice!

I'm definitely going to go back for more juice-ups and to try the food. It looks like they have many vegan menu options. (Plus they have large Sriracha bottles on the condiments table. Always a good sign.) Protein Bar also offers blended drinks, including some with funny names that are interesting to compare with their Chicago menu. For example, "Wrigley Peeled" becomes the "Federal A'Peel."

Butternut Bisque
This bisque is from Crazy Sexy Kitchen, the January VegCookbook Club pick. It is a sweet and soothing broth, just the thing for a sore throat. The book's recipe features pumpkin as the main veggie but also recommends squash and sweet potatoes as alternatives. Good thing, because we had a huge butternut in our kitchen, just waiting for soup-making. The recipe also calls for onions, roasted garlic, veggie stock, maple syrup, spices, and wine. The resulting butternut bisque didn't produce the bright orange-hue that a pumpkin soup might, so I used an Instagram filter.

Grind House smoothie and wraps

I know I should stop blogging about Baltimore, as I have moved to DC now, but I have to add Grind House Juice Bar & Market to the VeganMoFo excitement. Last month I finally stopped by this new vegan spot, located at 2441 St. Paul Street, after seeing their colorful postcard flyers all over town. It was pouring rain that day but the juice bar was dry and welcoming. 

The "market"portion of Grind House is small, with just a few shelves of veggie food and natural products. However the juice bar menu is overwhelming large and they have a full display case of to-go foods. I drank a "Sweet Greens" smoothie in their lounge. The smoothie was a expert blend of apple, cucumber, celery, kale, and ginger. I also purchased an artfully arranged take-away tray of delicious coconut seaweed wraps that featured millet. (How clever to use nori for more than sushi! I want to wrap all sorts of things in it now.) Grind House is about a 15 minute walk from Penn Station in Baltimore and well worth the stroll, even in the rain. They also play great music and offer free Wi-Fi.